1000937 The Bridge Tavern

I visited a number of pubs that get incredibly busy on matchdays due to their proximity to Croke Park - the next few posts will cover the lot of them. This was the only one that felt like it probably had a solid locals trade to cover the rest of the year.

Its relatively big for a pub in the area - the low building its in may make it look tiny, but there's a normal enough bar and a decent sized lounge out the back. The entire external wall area of the pub has been used as a canvas for a Dublin GAA mural and makes it one of the more frequently photographed pubs in the area - my attempt to show that the mural had been updated to add the Ladies team only managed to catch the different script and not the different design to the players heads though!

The lounge in particularly is decorated with memorabilia of local sporting achievements - I noticed more boxing than anything else. This is in stark contrast to some of the barely decorated pubs that will be written up in the next few days. There's comfortable enough seating (again, the others don't have this) and it all adds up to a proper community feeling (again...)

They've Dyson dryers in the toilets. Which is a bit of an oddity for a relatively rough and ready pub, and probably not worth mentioning - but it did stand out.

N0009 Lloyds

Lloyds is almost triangular in shape, situated as it is on the junction of Amiens Street and Foley Street, where they meet at an acute angle. This proved very useful on the bakingly hot day I visited, as doors on both long sides, and the snubbed off "point" of the triangle, were opened to generate a crossdraught.

A traditional city centre local with all you'd expect from those. There's relatively cheap drink and friendly staff, and not much else in the way of facilities - or pretentions either.

I dropped in on a match day, when the pub was liable to be busy - but as its just that little bit further from Croke Park, people had started to filter away towards the stadium; leaving mainly locals and a few without tickets to watch the game in the stadium.

I don't write as much about the people I see or meet in the pubs as other pub bloggers do - I'm rarely as good a story teller as required to do so. But the sight to behold here was sufficiently memorable to recount.

Tyrone were playing an U20 match that afternoon. They lost - but that would likely be only the second worst thing to happen to the poor Tyroneman who was in Lloyds. A white GAA jersey and grey tracksuit bottoms do not provide much cover to the staining caused by someone having tipped a pint or a darker coloured beer over you (elsewhere, I must add!). It may only have been the third worst thing if he thought the match was on in Croke Park - it was in Tullamore.

August 2019 Licence Update

Few changes this month, notably two removals for a reason which is rare in Ireland but endemic in the UK

Additions

1015219 Dublin Liberties Distillery Visitor Centre, Mill Street

Removals

DG0496 Black Raven, Skerries - converted to housing
N0096 Hill Street Sports Bar (Stoneys), Hill Street - converted to housing

Renumbering

1015469 Urban Brewing, CHQ Building - renumbered from 1013149

1015550 The Hendrick

A small new hotel on a slim in-fill site (formerly a fish wholesaler and a printers, going on old Streetview) in Smithfield, with a public bar; providing a relatively limited range of drinks options - and no food options as far as I could see.

Its not really somewhere you're likely to be passing - but if you've been told there's a wait for tables in 1013114 Token, this is likely to be quieter than N0213 Frank Ryans or N0215 Dice Bar and a bit more modern than N0214 McGettigans

This is the first of the "Opening Summer '19" hotel builds for Dublin, and possibly the only one that actually did open on time. I'm going to do a post on the recent openings and the upcoming that I'm aware of next, as it was starting to get too messy for this one

N1090 Hacienda Bar

As far as I know, there's only two pubs in Dublin where you need to be buzzed in - this and 1004033 Vintage Cocktail Club in Temple Bar. The doors remain closed here and it can be quite hard to tell if it is actually open or not - and it was actually closed for a few weeks recently for filming.

There's a large black and white CCTV monitor beside the bar, from where the staff can decide if you are going to be let in or not - or come out to you if you're standing outside wondering if its actually open before pressing the buzzer, as happened to us.

The pub has an - accurate - reputation as somewhere you may run in to a celebrity or two; but it manages this without being like Lillies in the Tiger era. Its not expensive by any definition, for starters. You may have to run in to a political birthday party, or whoever else famous is passing through - Jack Gleeson being the most recent mentioned on their Facebook.

The walls of the bar are covered in photos of the owner with these various celebs; which could make for a way to pass the time if you were somehow in here and bored. That's not likely to be the case, as the bar is likely to be quite busy - and there's small sized pool tables anyway

N2760 Koh

This Thai restaurant has an extensive cocktail menu, which I presume you can go to without eating - why else would you go to the expense of obtaining and maintaining a full pub licence otherwise?

We went in to eat, though - but had cocktails with the meal. The foods fine, nothing spectacular and likely to be similar to what you'll have in any other Thai in the city. 

The cocktails were quite good, but there was a distinct consistency issue - one ordered at the start of the meal and one of the same ordered again for the other diner were quite different. Presumably two bar tenders with different ideas of what they should be, but it doesn't give a great impression.

1015498 Penny Lane

One of the smallest completely new venues in Dublin in years - possibly the smallest for decades I'd guess - this is a sister bar to N0191 Pantibar across the road, operating an even more limited set of opening hours. Its also the first new premises to initially open as an LGBT venue that I'm aware of.

An attractive restoration/building conversion, this was ready to open in February but had minor issues delaying the licencing and only opened in June.

Cities newest pub looking well. Building to the right is on the site of a former pub closes in the 90s or early 00s pic.twitter.com/nhX2FvzoVH

— Cian Duffy (@cian_duffy) February 16, 2019

There's a smaller range of draught beer here than across the road; made up for by a wider range of spirits and mixed drinks; and the prices are higher - there's a lot less space to fill with customers, so this is probably expected.